


(Re)Union

by TheJackdaw



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alistair and Cullen are old friends, Alistair/Cullen Fluff, Cute, F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 11:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8978287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheJackdaw/pseuds/TheJackdaw
Summary: The Inquisitor meets the King for the first time, but he knows someone from her court already. No one said it was just his old friendship that had drawn him to Skyhold though.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was requested by @cullenstairshenanigans on Tumblr and is just a little bit of Cullen/Alistair fluff with some kind of plot to justify it.
> 
> I'm not really sure how good this is either coz I haven't really done any fanfic without the end goal of smut or an idea of an extended plot so HALP ME IMPROVE!
> 
> Merry Christmas fluffs and thanks for reading :D

Y/N was stood by her throne in one of her tunics she didn't typically wear, with her regular beige coloured leggings, but was paired instead with a white shirt. Her advisors were stood all around her, save Josephine who had gone down to the gates to guide him in. Her companions stood around the hall to politely await the arrival of perhaps their most influential visitor they had seen yet. Dorian was almost buzzing with excitement, and Y/N completely understood why. The Fereldan court had recently sent a letter through requesting an audience with the Inquisitor to discuss a potential alliance, and Cullen had been very enthusiastic to allow them in, insisting that King Alistair could offer them a great many new and useful opportunities. She herself had wanted to meet the King, mainly due to Cullen's own report of how kind and compassionate he had been in the past.

Y/N grinned as she heard the telltale sound of soldiers marching up the stone steps towards the main hall, and she turned to see Cullen smiling happily too. His excitement was endearing to her, and her smile widened even further at the sight of it. She straightened her posture as the first couple of rows of guards came in, marching into the room with Fereldan’s banner held high over their heads. After about 3 pairs had emerged, Y/N caught sight of Josephine in flowing conversation with King Alistair, speaking so confidently if you weren’t clued in you would have thought they were friends. Although if what Cullen had said was anything to go by, Alistair was very easy to become comfortable with.

Alistair looked up as he saw Y/N out of the corner of his eye, shooting her a grin which made her heart flutter. Josephine noticed that his attention had moved from her into the Inquisitor and politely excused herself to the side of the throne, beside Leliana who watched the whole scene carefully. Y/N internally giggled when she saw Alistair’s expression shift to joy when he caught sight of Cullen standing off to the side.

“King Alistair, it is a pleasure to welcome you to Skyhold.” Y/N nodded to him politely and brought his attention back to her. He gave her a bow in response.

“It’s a pleasure to be here, my lady.” He told her with a genuine smile on his face, although his gaze kept flicking over to Cullen, “I believe we have some important business to discuss.”

“Indeed, your highness.” She nodded and gestured over to the door that led to Josephine’s office and the War Table.

Alistair went to follow her and held his hand out back towards the two soldiers at the front of the ranks who went to follow him.

“At ease, men. There is no need to protect me from the men and women in here. Although if you will, please stand by the door so that we are not disturbed.”

They straighten and bowed respectfully, taking up their positions either side of the door frame as the King, the Inquisitor and her advisors all moved out of the view of the public to where they could discuss more sensitive matters.

As soon as the door to Josephine’s office was closed, Y/N looked between Cullen and Alistair and grinned again. She looked to Alistair and cocked her head towards Cullen with a chuckle. Alistair and Cullen immediately ran towards each other and came together in a hug that rattled the armour they both wore, and it warmed her heart to hear the laughter that came from them both.

“Look at you, mister ‘King of Fereldan’!” Cullen joked after stepping back to regard Alistair completely. He laughed as Alistair swept his hair back with his fingers and struck the most stuck up pose he could manage.

“I know! You should all be bowing to ‘his majesty’ if you want to keep your heads!” He couldn’t keep it up long before he broke into giggles too, though. “How about you, Commander Rutherford? You’ve changed quite a bit since we last met!”

Y/N cut in, “How do you know each other again?”

“The Wardens dropped by Kirkwall a while back just to check for signs of darkspawn in the area. I just happened to be out when Alistair came by looking for the rest of his group, who had buggered off to some brothel it turns out. Although it is strange to see how things change.”

They chuckled together before Cullen gestured further towards the War Table where they could begin the serious side to their reunion. Y/N tried her best to keep her thoughts professional, although she couldn’t keep her mind from partially wandering from how she appreciated the confident air that the King carried around with him. He certainly was a great leader, one could tell purely from the way he spoke and how carefully he thought about the impact his decision would have on his citizens’ lives. She briefly snuck a look to her Commander, who had very clearly caught her in her ogling and had bitten his lip to suppress his amusement.

“Yes?” She snapped her gaze back to Alistair’s expectant face, and she could tell he had asked her a question that she had very clearly not heard.

“Uh, yes.” She smiled sheepishly and hoped that her answer was satisfactory and Cullen snorted.

“Really? That’s rather surprising for a woman such as you to indulge in such things.” He chuckled deeply, and Y/N felt the blood rush to her cheeks in a hot blush as she realised she had probably said something embarrassing when Josephine rushed to her aid.

“I assure you the Inquisitor probably misheard you. She has never used her position as a woman to... _charm_ her way into agreements as you would suggest.”

“Peace, Lady Montilyet, I meant no offence. I merely offered it as a form of humour, although I understand I could have been taken as a slight on Miss Trevelyan.”

Josephine looked as though she was still rather shaken from his comment, but was on the way to recovering. Cullen stood up straight and rested his hands on the hilt of his sword as he cleared his throat.

“I do believe that is all that needs to be said about our alliance, is it not? Is there anything to add?”

Y/N looked to Alistair who stood so straight that his chest puffed out slightly with his hands on his sword belt.

“So the Crown will support the Inquisition with any and all moves against the darkspawn and Corypheus until his defeat. Following his demise, we shall reconvene to discuss the convenience of a possible extension of our agreement. Correct?

Y/N just nodded and smiled, signing a contract that Josephine had written up before sliding it across to Alistair who did the same before using the pot of melted wax to imprint his seal on the bottom of the scroll.

“If you will, Your Majesty,” Leliana held an arm out towards the door, “I will have some of our men take you to your quarters for you.”

“Actually, I was quite hoping to have an escort from the Inquisitor. I wish to have a private audience with her.”

Josephine looked scandalised by it, but Leliana and Cullen had caught on to what he had wanted immediately and Cullen stepped forward to answer him.

“I’m sure that would be absolutely fine, yes, Inquisitor?” He pushed her with the look her gave her, and who was she to refuse a request from her best friend and her King?

“Of course, Your Highness.” She nodded courteously and went to open the door for him, but he beat her there and flashed her one of his roughish smiles.

“Please after you, my lady.”

She had to suppress her girlish giggle as she moved past him to feel his presence close enough behind her he could brush his hand over her bottom in such a way that would have looked like an accident but felt entirely deliberate.

Alistair walked beside Y/N and turned to her with a wide grin as he combed his hair back with one hand.

“So a lovely lady such as you must have hoards of suitors banging down the door.” She giggled in response to his brazen approach of flirting, “Any suitable matches come your way?”

“As of right now, my Lord, no. They are all so dreary I can’t imagine having to spend my life with overstated Orlesian druffalo farmers. If I’m lucky, they might even have one claim to my hand the dates back less than one thousand years.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve had an unbelievable number of suitors coming to my door claiming that they have some kind of agreement with my family that would promise them their eldest daughter in the suitable generation. Considering I am the only girl out of my siblings and have considerable power throughout Thedas I have become somewhat of a target to the slathering nobles with a hunger for influence.”

“I would suggest finding someone who already knows what authority feels like. That way they would be with you purely for you, rather than petty things such as your position.”

A few voices began murmuring about how only the King and the Inquisitor came back out, some rather less savoury comments than others. Y/N had grown used to jealousy though and didn’t tend to let such nasty people get to her. After all, she was content to tell herself that they wouldn’t have their lives or freedom from the darkspawn if it wasn’t for her. She walked confidently through the main hall towards the steps to the guest quarters upstairs, still engaged in friendly conversation with Alistair.

Once they actually reached his room and the door had shut, Alistair invited her to have a drink the wine that was stood on the dresser in the corner of the room. He also let out an audible “ooo” at the sight of the little cubes of various cheeses on a platter to the side.

“I do not wish to leave my intentions in the dark for much longer, my Lady.” Alistair leant backwards against the dresser as he sipped from the dark red wine he had poured himself, offering her a cup too which she gladly took from him.

She stood a few feet from him and looked at him through her eyelashes, too nervous to look at him properly after she had inferred what he had been trying to talk about.

“The court has been advising me to find myself a partnership that would benefit the crown, yet I rather aggressively fought to not have an arranged marriage which they would so happily put me in as they did with my parents before me and the generations before them.”

“Josephine has sent me to so many soirees I’ve almost lost count.” Y/N tried to contribute but was too nervous she would overstep her bounds.

“The unfortunate drawback of our times in afraid.” He nodded and took another big gulp of his wine before he put it down on the surface behind him.

“I hope that I will find an amenable match before I am forced to marry.” Y/N huffed, “I’m not sure that’s possible, though. We have heard that many are calling for the disbandment of the Inquisition altogether following Corypheus’ defeat, and marrying someone to help with that would imply that we weren’t planning on a short-term solution.”

“You know it doesn’t have to be like that.” Alistair told her honestly and walked towards her with his head bowed and his hand lifting her gaze to his gently, trying not to scare her, “You can marry whoever you wish, who is there here to stop you?”

“Alistair...”

“I’m sorry, am I being too forward?” Alistair retreated his touch and stood back a little, but Y/N watched him with rapt attention, “I do not wish to leave you guessing any longer, it was not my intention. I simply wish to tell you that such an alliance with the crown and the Inquisition could be greatly beneficial for us both.”

He thought himself a fool for his phrasing, as he realised he had made it sound as though he was only interested in her for the same reason as the others; to add to his own power.

“No, Maker, I’m sorry.” He sighed, “I do think you’re a remarkable woman, and I would be ever so grateful if you would give me the chance to get to know you better.”

“I would like that very much. You are too kind Alistair.” Y/N smiled, and she found his nervous expression endearing. To see such a previously confident man reduced to carefully picking his words for fear of offending her.

“Not nearly kind enough, I fear.” He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly in a way that resembled that of her Commander.

 “Shall I organise for you to stay for a while longer then?” She walked towards to door and cast a look over her shoulder as seductively as she could, and was pleased to see his playfully lopsided smirk return as his stance became more relaxed.

“I do not wish to encroach on what precious time you have, Y/N.” He nodded politely as he looked at the ground, but cheekily looked back at her soon after, “However I would very much enjoy that.”

“I’ll make the necessary arrangements, Alistair.” She copied his use of her first name which seemed to please him, “But remember, should you need anything, my quarters are to the left of the throne.”

Now she knew that her feelings were mutual, she even had the confidence to dropped one eye into a bold wink before striding out the door, feeling the fresh blooming of her fancy in her chest that she had not felt since her courtships when she was only a teenager.


End file.
